Anna Hauser’s son Xavier typically has a team of 15 people caring for and educating him throughout a school day at Madison’s East High School.
But with schools closed statewide to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, the 14-year-old freshman, who has spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy making it impossible for him to walk or talk, hasn’t been getting in-person services such as physical therapy he would typically get at school.
Hauser, who has two other children — ages 7 and 11 — at home, is finding YouTube math videos to keep her oldest child educationally engaged and doing the stretches a physical therapist would normally provide for him.
“They’re just stressed because life is so much different,” Hauser said of her children. “We live in a little two-bedroom apartment. Nobody has any room to breathe.”
Almost a million Wisconsin school children are out of class following an order that shuttered all schools by March 18, forcing families to adapt work schedules, child care arrangements and learning opportunities.